Posts tagged patent

GoPro doesn't make square, cube-like cameras, but if it did, the picture (after the break) is probably what they'd look like. The image comes from a patent granted to GoPro today. The protection covers a "Camera housing for a square-profile camera," rather than a camera itself (makers of square ca...

Airbags on the inside, that's what cars typically have. That's great for protecting people on the inside a vehicle. But, how about airbags on the outside, for the rest of us? Google's patented the idea for its driverless cars, with a system of inflatable bumpers that would react in the event of an...

It's official: after four months of waiting, former Google legal counsel Michelle Lee has been confirmed as the head of the US Patent and Trademark Office. She was already serving as the acting director (the position has technically been vacant since 2013), but this gives her a more secure footing...

Microsoft may be taking some steps to make nice with the Android world, but the company is still willing to pick fights when its royalty payments are at stake. The Windows maker has sued Kyocera in the US over claims that Android phones like the Brigadier and Hydro series violate seven patents on ...

Apple may not be nearly as enamored with virtual reality as Facebook, Google or Samsung, but that doesn't mean it's uninterested -- it's clearer than ever that Cupertino has been intrigued for years. The USPTO has granted Apple a patent (originally filed way back in 2008) for a headset design that...

It takes a special patent to pique our interest these days, but Google has just been issued actual intellectual property for a device that would help others evade your stank. The "odor removing device" (below) is designed to "emit a fragrance in response to detected parameters," but that's not the...

White Knuckle IP filed a lawsuit late last week against EA, alleging that the publisher infringed on a patent that focuses on methods for updating sports games based on real-life changes. The suit referred to U.S. Pat. No. 8,529,350, which described methods that record real-world parameters, then s...

What do you do when a good idea fails? You invest in a better version of it. We've known about Google's huge bet on startup Magic Leap for months, but a recent patent application explains why Mountain View has thrown over $540 million at an unknown entity. We don't know exactly what Magic Leap wil...

Apple in 2014 filed over 2,000 patents which, together, encompass a dizzying array of technologies and futuristic ideas. And while many of the patents granted to Apple will never see the light of day and aren't worth much of a mention, some are certainly worth highlighting.
Case in point: App...

Toyota's apparently hedging it's bet in the hybrid world by also gambling on a hydrogen-powered future. In an apparent attempt to drum up some development support, all 5,680 or so of Toyota's FCV (Fuel Cell Vehicle) patents developed for and in support of the Mirai are being tossed out to the worl...

Nintendo has prevailed in yet another patent lawsuit, this time against Texas company UltimatePointer LLC, regarding a case we first reported on in 2011. UltimatePointer asserted that Nintendo's Wiimote infringed on its patent for an "Easily Deployable Interactive Direct-Pointing System and Present...

And just like that, the Rockstar Consortium's lawsuit campaign against Android is over. The patent holding group (backed by Apple, BlackBerry, Ericsson, Microsoft and Sony) has sold all of its commonly held patents to clearinghouse RPX for $900 million, or a fraction of the $4.5 billion the total ...

Google has been forging patent deals left and right with smartphone manufacturers to both get technology and fend off lawsuits, and now it's taking a similar approach with American carriers. The search firm has reached a deal with Verizon that gives both sides access to patents covering a "broad r...

Philips made more than a few gamers nervous when it sued Nintendo over motion control patents back in the spring, but all that's water under the bridge as of today. The two companies have reached a truce that has Philips dropping its lawsuits in return for a patent cross-licensing deal. Neither fi...

Remember the Rockstar Consortium? The group was formed by a handful of tech giants (including Apple, Microsoft, Ericsson and Sony) to buy a treasure trove of patents and promptly sue both Google and some Android partners, which promised one of the bigger legal battles in recent tech history. Well,...

The greatest patent battle Apple ever waged... was with Samsung. The funniest, probably, is with Skytel, a company, kids, that made makes pagers. A jury has found that the iPhone and other Apple devices used Skytel technology without permission. Mobile Telecommunication Technologies, which owns th...

Samsung definitely isn't taking NVIDIA's first patent lawsuit lying down. The Korean tech firm has countersued NVIDIA not just for allegedly infringing on six patents, but for leading buyers astray with benchmarks for the Shield Tablet. NVIDIA is supposedly trying to "confuse customers" by claimin...

Samsung isn't the only Android device maker getting cozy with Google's patents, apparently. LG has just entered into a cross-licensing deal with Google that will let the two companies use each other's patents (including new ones) for the next 10 years. The two sides are coy about just why they've ...

Samsung was quick to cite the acquisition of Nokia as a reason for holding out on Microsoft's royalty payments, but there weren't many details. Just what had it spooked? Thanks to some new court filings, we now have a clearer sense of its motivations. Simply put, the Korean tech giant is worried a...

If you thought Denon's Heos wireless speakers were a little too similar in purpose to Sonos' range, you're not alone. Sonos has sued D&M Holdings (the company that owns Denon) for allegedly violating "at least" four patents. The audio gear maker accuses the Denon team of making "little to no e...